Buzz

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/37765>:

<< "Miz" has a vowel. "Mz" doesn't. Make an "m" sound and a "z"
without an "ih" (short i) sound and you'll hear the difference. "Mz"
more or less rhymes with "buzz." >>

"Mrs" and "Mr' don't have vowels in their spelling either. More
exciting, Mrs doesn't have a R in its pronunciation ("Mississ", like
Mississippi).

The small sound represented by "i" could be "short i" or it could be
schwa. Like the second syllable of the word 'postman' is often
pronounced with schwa, and back in the late 60s-early 70s several
feminist lexicographers wanted to spell it 'phonetically' as POSTMUN.
To me, the small sound represented by "u", "uh", is always "short u"
and never schwa, so looking at POSTMUN is to me just weird. If I were
asked to write 'postman' 'phonetically', I would write 'postmin'.

As for the word 'buzz', it doesn't sound like the noise that bees
make, zzzzz, a kind of whirring sound, resembling a purr in its
vowel-less-ness. I can't pronounce either of them.

Geoff replied to Carol in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/37767>:

<< Pretend you're a bee seeking pollen and humming at the same time.
:-) >>

Like Dumbledore?

Actually, the bee seeks nectar and gets pollen by accident.